Salvage

An allowance for saving a ship or goods from the danger of the seas, from fire, pirates, or enemies.

Weeks v. The Catharina Maria, 2 Pet. Adm. 424; Lea v. The Alexander, 2 Paine, 466.

Salvage service: such service as is rendered in the rescue or relief of property at sea in imminent peril of loss or deterioration.

The H. B. Foster, Abh. Adm. 222, 228.

Salvor: one who, without any particular relation to a vessel in distress, proffers useful service, giving it as a volunteer adventurer, without any pre-existing covenant that connected him with the duty of employing himself for the preservation of the vessel. The Wave «.

Hyer, 2 Paine, 131; Evans v. The Charles, 1 Newh. Adm. 329.

Salvage is the compensation allowed to persons by whose assistance a ship or boat, or the cargo of a ship, or the lives of the persons belonging to her, are saved from danger or loss in cases of shipwreck, derelict, capture, and the like. And a salvor is he who renders such assistance. The services entitling to salvage must be such as demanded skill, enterprise, and risk on the part of the salvors; for mere ordinary services, as towage, no salvage is claimable. (The Princess Alice, 3 W.Eob. 138.) Moreover, these services must have been attended witli success (The Edward Hawkins, 31 L. J. Adm. 46); for salvage, it is said, is a reward for services actually conferred, not for services attempted to be conferred (The Chetah, 5 Moo. P. C. C. s. s. 621). The chief statutory provisions at present in force with reference to wreck and salvage are contained in Part VIII. of the merchant shipping act of 1854, Stat. 17 & 18 Vict. ch.

104.

Brown. The relief of property from an impending peril of the sea, by the voluntary exertions of those who are under no legal obligation to render assistance, and the consequent ultimate safety of the property from such peril, constitute a case of salvage; and where the compensation is not fixed by such a contract as a court of admiralty time law.

Adams v. The Island City, 1 Cliff. 210. See also Baker v. Hoag, 7 N.Y. 555.

One who claims salvage must show, among other things, that he rendered a voluntary service; not one owed to the property in peril or to its owner. Thus, where vessels come into collision, no claim for salvage arises because one renders service afterwards to the other. Upon a collision, either vessel is bound to render any aid which may be in her power, necessary to the safety of the other; and this is so, even though she is not in fault for the collision.

The Clarita and The Clara, 23 WaU. 1.

One of two vessels which have been in collision may, if an innocent party, be entitled to salvage for services rendered to the other party (and this is so, notwithstanding 25 & 26 Vict. ch. 63, § 33); but not so, if both ships were equally in fault.

Cargo ex Capella, L. B. 1 A. i- E. 356.

Bisk of life is not a necessary element of salvage service. Where such risk is incurred in saving property, it will place the salvors in a higher position of merit, and entitle them to a more liberal compensation for the service than would otherwise be accorded. But the controlling inquiry in salvage cases is, was the property in peril of being lost, and was it saved by the efforts of those claiming to be salvors? Spencer v. The Charles Avery, 1 Bond, 117; Blagg V. The E. M. Bicknell, Id. 270. Salvors, strictly so called, are persons who undertake to save property in peril, at the request of the owners, or of the master. They are under the direction and control of the master, and may be discharged by him, with or without good cause, upon being compensated for what they have already done, or without such immediate compensation, if their lien is not endangered. Finders, on the other hand, take possession primarily, by right of discovery, and cannot be dispossessed afterwards by the owner or master. Again, finders being in possession, under no contract, may abandon their enterprise if their exertions have not diminished the chances of ultimate safety; and this without waiting for any such danger to life, or apparent hopelessness of the enterprise, as would alone justify salvors in abandonment. But both salvors and finders are under an implied obligation to use good faith, honesty, skill, and energy in what they do undertake.

The Ida L. Howard, 1 Low. 23.